Lake Worth – Lantana is a well-known center for Finns in Florida, but who were the first Finns in Florida, when did they arrive, and what did they do?

There were Finnish sailors in Pensacola already in the 1880s and even before. First farmers, carpenters, and builders arrived around 1900 in several areas. Some farmers settled in Lake Worth during the 1930s, and when tourists and snowbirds found Florida, the farmers greeted them with good Finnish saunas.
Was it then the friendly farmers and their saunas that started the Lake Worth – Lantana Finntown during the 1940s?

Presenter Bios:

Sirpa Aho, Ph.D
Served as the president of Finland House for 12 years, currently a board member.
Sirpa Aho received her doctoral degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Turku, Finland 1980. She had a long career in several universities and research laboratories around the world, including the Universities of Turku and Helsinki, Japan, Philadelphia, and Connecticut in the private sector.
She has published 70 peer-reviewed research articles and received multiple international grants and awards. After retiring in 2012, she moved to Florida and became interested in the Finnish cultural heritage in the development of the State of Florida. This interest led to two books about Finns in Florida.

Timo Vainionpää
The Owner and editor of USAsuomeksi.com
Timo Vainionpää has more than five decades of experience in the IT field. In earlier years Timo was a part of a development team of products that drew international interest and Timo was often seen as a speaker in international software conferences.
After moving to USA Timo developed one of the first Finnish websites some 30 years ago.
USAsuomeksi.com gained popularity and consequently got Timo to start producing content for the readers. This brought Timo to photojournalism and honed his writing skills. These articles were widely noticed and Timo was invited as an international correspondent of a news bureau in Finland.